The sentiments of the internationale could be detected at the 2004 SAPC conference on Clydeside in 2004 as research and teaching staff responded to the call ‘arise ye from your slumbers’. The meeting provided further evidence that academic general practice has started to move out of established national boundaries with collaborations like the Brisbane Initiative to encourage research training in different countries recently. There were overseas speakers, representatives from the North American Primary Care group (NAPCRG) and editors from our major journals like the BJGP, Family Practice and the Annals of Family Practice. Two of the best presentations were selected, and funded, to represent general practice in the UK at the combined NAPCRG/WONCA conference in Orlando in October 2004. When SAPC next convene during July 2005 in Newcastle/Gateshead the reciprocal transatlantic crossing will be made by their best presenters. We may yet have to wait a few years before academic general practice ‘unites the human race’, but SAPC in Glasgow made an excellent contribution to the process.
- © British Journal of General Practice, 2004.